“I know how this works,” I cut him off, feeling impatient because they were treating me with kid gloves.
“Grace, I need you to step outside of the room.”
Grace’s eyes moved to me for reassurance and I nodded. She gave me a final look before turning and exiting the room.
I watched as Mark and the technician went through the motions of setting up the X-ray equipment, and I positioned myself on the gurney so that my hand would rest on the square for the correct image. It hurt like hell just laying my hand in the flat position. As the pictures were taken, Mark talked about some bullshit that I already knew but I didn’t bother stopping him. All I kept thinking about was the possibility of bone fragments having broken off and needing to be repaired surgically. That would put me out of the OR for months likely, and then there was a chance that the bone would never heal properly, possibly ending my career as I knew it.
I knew you were a screw up!
Squeezing my eyes tightly, I shook my head as the sounds of my mother’s voice echoed in my head.
“Dr. Reynolds, are you all right?”
“Are you fucking done yet?” I snapped.
“Y-Yeah, we’re done. We should have the images for you soon,” the frightened X-ray tech answered before looking to the other guy, and then quickly setting up the machine to push back out of the room.
“I’m not having surgery here,” I stated, hopping off the gurney and searching for my clothes. There were better orthopedic surgeons at Memorial. If I was going to let anyone operate on me, it would be one of them.
“Dr. Reynolds, where are you going? We haven’t confirmed your injury yet.”
That was when Grace stepped back inside the curtain, her eyes growing wide as she watched me struggle to pull the T-shirt I must’ve worn here over my head.
“Jacob, what are you doing?”
“Leaving,” I grunted out, due to a combination of the pain in my body and anger.
“You can’t go, you haven’t even gotten the results of your X-rays back yet.”
“I don’t need– Shit!” I cursed from having stubbed my damn toe on the side of the bed. I hadn’t even realized I was barefoot.
“Jacob, calm down, please.”
“I’m not letting them operate on me. My chances will be better at Memorial,” I demanded, searching out my shoes.
“We don’t even know if you need surgery. Let’s just take this one step at a time.”
“And stop using that fucking tone with me!” I snarled at Grace, causing her to stiffen in shock. “I’m not your patient. I’m your—” Pausing, I looked around the room before my eyes fell back on Grace. “I’m not your patient.”
Her watery eyes blinked and she shook her head. “No, you’re not my patient. I’m sorry.”
Her apology calmed the raging bull that’d been awakened inside of me, even for just a little bit. Unfortunately, I was starting to discern that whatever had been awakened inside of me that day, wouldn’t be put to sleep so easily. My brain still wasn’t letting me remember the entirety of that day. Just pieces and glimpses. Deep down, I knew something had gone terribly wrong, however. I had a strong sense of my world being off its axis, and I couldn’t shake it. That coupled with the possibility of a career-ending injury and I felt like I was about to explode.
“Dr. Reynolds, your X-rays should be back any moment. Let’s wait until we know what’s going on with your hand before we make any decisions.”
I frowned, wanting to tell this guy to fuck off. I hated his voice, the fact that Grace was on a first name basis with him,andthat she’d brought me to him in the first place. It showed that she trusted him. I hated him for that. But I ignored him. I placed my attention on Grace, and even though she remained silent, her eyes pleaded with me to do as he requested.
“Fine.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jacob
She flinched.
Grace flinched when I raised my left hand to run my knuckles across her cheek. She blanched at movement from me, and seeing that was a pain I’d never felt before. We were sitting inside of my car, in my parking space in the garage attached to my building. Grace had driven us from the hospital.
I lowered my hand to my leg. “Are you afraid of me now?”
